The present invention relates to a dog toy, and more particularly to a toy for use in interactive play between dog and owner.
Interactive play between a dog and its owner is widely enjoyed by many as a recreational diversion and for providing a dog with needed exercise. Many tug and fetch toys are available which adequately meet this need, and come in a wide range of shapes, sizes and designs. Perhaps the simplest of these toys is the common tennis ball, which has been used alone, or in combination with other structures, for example, serving as fixed end portions of an elongated fetch stick, as disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 6,216,640 or attached to a looped handle as disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,961,406. Although adequately permitting a user to throw it some distance and allowing a dog to grab the toy in its mouth for retrieval thereof, due to the physical nature of such toys it is impossible to predict what portion of the toy the dog will select to hold in its mouth when picking up the toy after it has been thrown. Consequently, over the course of play, saliva of the dog will likely accumulate on all portions of the fetch article, including that portion or those portions gripped by the user when taken from the dog's mouth and thrown again. The attendant transfer of saliva from the toy to the hand may consequently detract from the appeal of such interactive play for certain individuals, and potentially discourage some from engaging in such activities.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a toy which, by virtue of its design, would reduce or substantially eliminate the exposure of a user to saliva deposited thereon by a dog, particularly during interactive play.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a dog toy which overcomes the drawbacks of the prior art.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a dog toy which effectively insulates the dog owner from contact with the saliva of the dog deposited on the toy during play.
It is still a further object of the invention to provide a dog toy which can be readily picked up from the ground in the mouth of a dog and which can be easily held in the hand by a user.
It is yet a further object of the invention to provide a method of using a toy directed to interactive play which minimizes exposure of a dog owner to saliva of the dog deposited thereon over time.